


my top spinning to a fall

by cruelnepenthe



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Child Neglect, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sad Uzumaki Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 19:06:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30144192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cruelnepenthe/pseuds/cruelnepenthe
Summary: Naruto was six years old when he tried to buy groceries by himself for the first time. No one else was going to get them for him, after all.
Relationships: Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36





	my top spinning to a fall

**Author's Note:**

> hello to anyone reading niche naruto fic in 2021! nice to see you. i've started re-watching naruto after a very long time, and i'm once again filled with searing rage at konoha's handling of him. so, i'm here, expressing it. i don't write much, so let me know if you enjoyed (or see this at all, haha). thanks for stopping by:)

Naruto was six years old when he tried to buy groceries by himself for the first time. He had returned home each evening for five days, waiting for the bagged food that had been appearing weekly on his counter to finally show up. He didn’t know who brought it, nor when they delivered it. He would arrive from his evening wanderings to find it placed in his kitchen-- just essential groceries. And instant ramen; the deliveries always included instant ramen. Until one week, they stopped. As quickly and as easily as they had been granted to him, they were taken away. By the fifth day he had exhausted any leftovers in his pantry and fridge. The ache in his stomach had grown too powerful to ignore, and none of the standowners in Konoha would let him buy fresh food, or even let him approach for that matter. So he starved until he couldn’t take it anymore. Grabbing the froggy wallet he had nabbed from an alleyway after leaving the orphanage, Naruto got up from his bed and decided that this would be the evening he finally got his own food. No one else was going to get it for him, after all. He pulled a yellow tee-shirt over his head, frowning down at himself when it hung more loosely than the last time he’d worn it. He yanked on some shorts and looked out the window near his bed.  


Sunset had fallen over Konoha and the streets were beginning to clear. In the afternoon, the marketplace was filled with the bustling of civilians and shinobi alike. Naruto liked to surround himself in the noise, most of the time. His apartment was always so empty. The silence grated on his ears if he stayed there for too long, so most evenings he would aimlessly roam the streets. Nothing in Naruto’s life came free, though, and the cost of company was painful. As much as Naruto enjoyed the rhythm of Konoha life, the inhabitants of the village made it clear that he was not to play a role in it. Sometimes he returned home in the evenings feeling even more alone than when he had ventured out to begin with. Today, his stomach growled loudly at him, his head felt fuzzy, and his mind drifted into simple melancholy. It was better that Konoha was quiet. He just wanted to buy groceries, stuff himself full of cup ramen, and sleep. It was a good, three step plan he thought to himself, walking out of his bedroom and slipping his feet into the too-small sandals that sat by his doorframe. He could do this, get it right!  


Naruto ambled down the stairs of his apartment complex, hand gripping the wallet in his pocket anxiously. He knew the streets of his village as well as he knew his own home, but with this novel mission, they felt unfamiliar to him. As he approached the marketplace, he marveled at how different the area looked in the dimming light and with a thinned crowd. The shops and streetlights loomed over his head, and the setting sun cast long shadows on the ground. He felt small. Smaller still under the watchful gaze of the pedestrians who lingered on the street. Without the usual flurry of visitors that marked daytime in Konoha, Naruto was more exposed than ever. He couldn’t shield himself from prying eyes behind a tall adult’s back and he couldn’t duck into an alleyway unnoticed when an angry shop-owner threw old vegetables at him. He was too visible, too conspicuous at this time of day. He heard the murmurs and grumbles of the people around him as he passed. They hardly bothered to lower their voices when they spoke about him.  


_“There goes that demon, the kid can’t do anything but cause problems for us”  
_

_“It was a relaxing evening before he showed up. Does he ever leave? I hate him”  
_

_“Look, the child with the name that’s taboo. How unfortunate”  
_

They never used his name. He pulled pranks sometimes, when his confidence got the best of him. He honestly hoped that someone would scream it to his face, hoped that when they beat him next they would yell it at him. He wanted to be someone, but no matter how many times he announced his name from the rooftops, the village ignored him. Naruto kept his head held up despite his growing unease. If there was one value he prided himself on it was his unshakeable determination. He wouldn’t let the villagers get to him, he had to buy these groceries, get it right! Despite his best attempts at hiding his fear, the shadows scared him a bit and the peoples’ eyes seemed more menacing than usual. His throat felt tight and he crossed his arms over his chest to try and project calmness. He wondered briefly if it was working.  


Nearing the grocery store, he stopped, looking through the windows near the doorway. The store appeared empty. The visible aisles were deserted, and the sole cashier was bent over the counter, lazily flipping a coin and watching it land. Naruto took a deep breath in, steeling himself. He was going to buy instant ramen, apples, chips, and jerky. He nervously pulled out his froggy wallet and rifled through the change inside of it.  


Ever since he left the orphanage, Jii-chan had been visiting him every month with an envelope of cash that he called “monthly living expenses”. It wasn’t a lot of money, really. The landlady for his apartment would ask for a big portion of it every month. She told him it was to keep his water running and his lights on. The first month, he had accidentally spent all of his money on comics and on buying overpriced chips off of other kids. When the landlady came to collect her share, she tsked at him and informed him bluntly that she guessed he wouldn’t have amenities this month. He had lived like that-- without hot, or subsequently running water and electricity until he was able to pay up the next month. One man on the street had told him that he reeked like an animal, but he hadn’t thought that he smelled too bad and he couldn’t shower anyway. He learned quickly that the landlady came first and snacks came second. He hadn’t been including groceries in his impromptu budget, so he was grateful that he had some spare change to buy food for himself this time. Even if it was just enough to buy those few things.  


Naruto closed his wallet and shoved it back inside his pocket. He walked up to the door and pushed it open, hearing the faint jingle of bells ring out when they shook where they hung on the door handle. The cashier didn’t notice him enter, having traded the coin for a magazine. Naruto sighed in relief when he wasn’t kicked out of the premises immediately. He wandered down the rows of food, hunting down the items he had come to buy. It was a quick trip, and he waddled up to the counter with his arms full of groceries.  


“Hey, mister,” Naruto said, stretching up on his toes to place his goods on the countertop, “I’m buying all this”  


The man looked up and around, startled, his short brown hair flying around in surprise.  


“Huh?” he muttered, not seeing a customer. Naruto spoke up again.  


“I’m over here, get it right! I got money too,” he announced.  


The cashier finally looked down a bit, and Naruto watched as the expression on his face went from curiosity, to disgust, to something like rage. His lip curled back in a sneer and his eyebrows drew together. This did not bode well, Naruto thought.  


“You,” the cashier snarled, “How the hell did this demon make its way inside my store. And talk to me? Ask to buy my groceries? How dare you,” he said, straightening to his full height and walking out from behind the counter. Naruto abandoned his food and stumbled back a few steps, worried.  


“I just need to buy some groceries,” he said, “Please, mister, I can pay and everything, you know it!”  


The man did not take kindly to this.  


In a swift motion, he kicked his leg out and struck the side of Naruto’s shins, knocking him over and into a shelf behind him. Naruto cried out at the aching pain in his legs and head, scrambling at the ground to get his bearings. Seeing the man walk over to his prone form, Naruto lifted both his palms over his face, and curled in on himself, knee going up to his ribs to protect them. He heard the man chuckle, faintly.  


“Look at it. Poor little demon. You better not have damaged my shelf with your thick skull,” he growled, moving around to Naruto’s side and delivering a second kick to his gut.  


Naruto gasped in pain but didn’t move, trying to protect himself. He couldn’t see behind his hands, and each time the man kicked him he was caught off guard. It may have been five times, but it may have been fifteen. Naruto didn’t know. He couldn’t think over the agony and the waves of fear that inundated his brain.  


He was torn out of his shock when the man pried both his arms away with one hand and used the other to grab the neck of his shirt. He saw the pure hatred in his eyes as he was lifted into the air by his clothes. He dangled there, legs kicking as the cashier eyed him.  


“I never want to see your disgusting face in here again, you hear me? Never. You’re only alive because Sandaime has prohibited your execution for some reason. It would be easier for all of us if you were dead. Now get the hell out,” he said, dropping Naruto onto the ground.  


Naruto fell with a grunt, his knees crumpling below him. He gathered his strength and rushed out of the store on shaky legs. His legs burned, his stomach was pounding in pain, and he could feel a faint wetness on top of the ache in his skull. He was already tired from the lack of food, but after this ordeal, his head spun alarmingly. He blinked a few times, trying to clear the fuzzy spots out of his vision, but each time he opened his eyes there were more of them. He stumbled a few steps away from the doorway, and managed to pull himself into a nearby alleyway. He pushed his back against one of the brick walls and slid onto the ground, burying his head in folded arms on top of his knees.  


Naruto had learned that he healed quickly, but never instantaneously. He found himself begging that it would work faster so he could summon the energy to walk home. Free of the danger, Naruto felt his throat close up. He had just needed some food. He was so tired. With no one around to see, he let the tears he so often concealed fall freely down his cheeks, tasting salt when they ran over his lips into the crease of his arms. He was hungry, and he hurt. The dizziness in his head grew stronger with each passing moment, and he was beginning to feel uncomfortably nauseous.  
He sat there, for a while. He didn’t know how long. In the corner of his vision, he saw the pink light of dusk steadily fade into the telltale blue of night. He wondered how the moon hung tonight, and if the stars looked the same from here as they did from his bed. He didn’t want to move. No one was expecting him home, anyway. In his disoriented state, he didn’t notice the ninja that passed the alleyway and then doubled back after hearing the faint crying that emanated from it. He didn’t notice when the same, scar-nosed ninja entered the corridor. He was completely unaware of the man’s presence until a voice broke the crisp silence of the night.  


“Hey, kid, is everything alright?” the voice asked.  


Naruto startled. He was completely caught off guard, but his head felt heavy and he didn’t want to lift it off his arms. Perhaps, he thought, if he didn’t respond back the strange adult would go away. He stayed still, silencing his sobs and pressing his face deeper into his arms.  


That was until he felt a large hand land firmly on the back of his lowered head. Naruto gasped, and flinched, lifting his head from where it lay and turning it back to avoid a hit to the face. Instinctively he spoke.  


“I’m n-not doing anything w-wrong,” he gasped out, “Please d-don’t hurt me,” he begged.  


When the man didn’t answer, Naruto slowly turned his head towards him, looking up. The man gasped, and stepped back when their eyes met.  


“You, um” he said quietly, sounding more hesitant than Naruto was used to hearing from adults, “What are you… What are you doing here this late?”  


Naruto was surprised at the reaction. The man seemed to recognize who he was when he showed his face, but he wasn’t angry at him. Naruto studied him. He was a ninja; Naruto could tell from the green vest he wore and the hitai that covered his forehead. He had dark brown hair that was tied in a high ponytail, and eyes of a matching color. Naruto’s gaze was drawn to the prominent scar across his nose, though. He wondered where the man had gotten it from. The ninja hadn’t moved yet and seemed to be waiting for Naruto’s response.  


“Um… I--I’m not in t-trouble, right? I was tryna g-go home but I’m really d-dizzy,” Naruto murmured.  


“Dizzy,” the ninja repeated, “You’re dizzy, why are you dizzy? Oh, you-- you look hurt. Is that blood? Um,” he trailed off, seeming nearly as confused as Naruto was.  


Naruto really didn’t have the energy to deal with this tonight. A civilian he could fend off, but a ninja would kill him in his current state. He didn’t want to talk to more adults. He especially didn’t want to be hurt more. He said as much.  


“I’m fine, please just leave me alone, got it? Please,” he pleaded, “My head hurts and I’m hungry and I’m tired and I just want you to go away,” Naruto burst out.  


Immediately he cringed, ducking his head. He didn’t know what had possessed him to talk to the ninja like that. He was going to get himself killed. Instead of anger, though, Naruto was met with silence.  


“You’re hurt,” the ninja said after a few moments, sounding shocked and blinking hard, “I can fix that. I also have food. Or something at least. Not here, at my home. Uh, can I take you to my home? I can’t-- I can’t leave you bleeding on the street,” the ninja managed. He shook his head as if clearing his mind before adding, “Oh, I’m Iruka Umino, but Iruka is fine”.  


Naruto was absolutely floored. He sincerely had no idea how to respond. The ninja-- Iruka-- had not only _not_ hurt him, but he’d also offered to take him to his house and give him food? It sounded too good to be true, but Naruto’s traitorous stomach growled in dissent when he opened his mouth to refuse the offer. His night couldn’t get much worse, after all. Naruto looked up at Iruka behind his spotty vision, feeling the corners of his lips pull back up into his usual grin.  


“Sure, I’ll go with you, y’know it!” Naruto responded, and watched as Iruka’s face lifted into a kind-looking smile.  


“That’s great,” Iruka said, stretching his hand down to pull Naruto up.

**Author's Note:**

> i've translated naruto's tic, " _dattebayo_ " or " _'ttebayo_ " in a few different ways to fit the context. hopefully it fits! have another chapter written from iruka's POV, will post soon. have a good one:) fic title is from "tidal waves" by summer salt


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